The present invention relates to a recording apparatus capable of recording information on both a continuous recording medium and a cut-sheet recording medium, and more particularly to an improvement in such a recording apparatus which may simplify the exchanging and resetting of a continuous rolled recording medium and also may easily set a cut-sheet recording medium.
In a conventional recording apparatus for recording information on the continuous rolled recording medium, either of a printing head or a platen is provided in a fixed unit of the recording apparatus, and the other is provided in a movable unit rotatable relative to the fixed unit. In the case that the platen does not serve to feed the recording medium, a pair of feed rollers are further provided in the recording apparatus, one of the feed rollers being located in the fixed unit and the other feed roller being located in the movable unit. Under the open condition of the movable unit, the recording medium can be exchanged, and under the closed condition, an unrolled portion of the continuous rolled recording medium is set between the printing head and the platen. In the case that the pair of feed rollers are further provided, the unrolled portion of the continuous rolled recording medium is set between the feed rollers. Thus, a ready condition for printing and paper feeding is reset. Such recording apparatus is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,644,930, 3,905,462 and 4,223,325, for example.
Another type recording apparatus capable of recording information on a cut-sheet recording medium as well as a continuous rolled recording medium is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 59-165668 and 60-155482, for example.
However, the recording apparatus including both a paper feeding mechanism for feeding the continuous rolled recording medium and another paper feeding mechanism for feeding the cut-sheet recording medium has a shortcoming such that the rotation of the movable unit interferes with the paper feeding mechanisms. Further, the pair of feed rollers are located upstream of the position where the printing head and the platen are opposed, so as not to interfere with the insertion of the cut-sheet recording medium between the printing head and the platen. However, in this case, there is a problem that the continuous rolled recording medium is slacked at any position downstream of the feed rollers. Such slack tends to occur especially in the case that the recording medium is fed upwardly. When the slack of the recording medium is generated, proper printing cannot be performed. That is, a proper line spacing of data to be printed cannot be ensured. Especially when the slack is generated between the printing head and the platen, a printing stylus of the printing head will be caught by the slacked portion of the recording medium, causing breakage of the recording medium.